Clever Beauty Secrets.

Otago Witness, Issue 3613, 12 June 1923, Page 61

Clever Beauty Secrets.

Revealed by a London Chemist. This series of urticl'. by E. W. Smith, M.P.S., a qualified registered London ehemist and pharmacist, )■ 1 particularly interesting; * because of its authoritativeness. Considering the bewildering mas* of toilet requisites now offered to the public, Mr Smith's simple and r homely suggestion* should come as a great relief to the puzzled beauty seeker. The dispensing chemist, above all others, is .a a position to judge results from long experience with thousands of cases. Mr Smith has made a special study of the chemistry of beauty culture for many years, and the time is ripe for some such expert's clear statements, backed by the authority of experience and knowledge. Renewing Complexions. It is foolish to attempt to cover up or hide a sallow complexion, when you can so easily remove the sallowness itself. ltcMgo and the like on a brownish skin only emphasises the defect. The better way is to apply pure mercolised wax—the same a* you would cold cream—putting it on at night, removing it in' the morning with warm water and soap, following with a dash of cold water. The effect of a few applications is simply marvellous. The half-dead cuticulc is absorbed by the wax—painlessly, gradually, in tiny, imperceptible particles—revealing the beautiful velvety white new skin beneath. No woman need have a sallow, blotcl.t pimply, or freckled complexion if she w;u just get some good mercolised wax and us* M suggested. Feminine Moustaches. To women who ate annoyed by disfiguring downy hair growths a method of permanently eradicating the eame will come as a piece of good news. For this purpose pur* powdered pheminol may be used. Almost any chemist should be, able to supply an ounce of this drug. The recommended treatment is designed not only to remove the disfiguring growth instantly, leaving no trace, but also to actually kill the hair root* without irritating the skin. The Kiss Curl. I cannot too strongly condemn the us* of the hot curling-iron. It means death to the hair eventually. Moreover, it is entirely unnecessary. The hair can be made beautifully wavy and curly to any extent and in any form desired, merely by using such a simple ingredient as pure siimerine. This pc-rteetiy harmless liquid should ba applied to Ihc hair with a clean tooth brush at night. In the morning you will iind that a very beautiful natural wave and curlinesa ha* resulted, and the effect will last many days. The liquid eilmerine is very beneficial and ia not sticky or greasy. A couple of ounces should last a very long time. The Magnetism of Beautiful Hair. Beautiful .hair adds immensely to th« personal magnetism of both men and women. Actresses and smart women arc ever on the lookout for any harmless thing that will increase the natural beauty of their hair. The latest method is to use pure stallax as a shampoo on account of the peculiarly glossy, fluffy, and wavy effect which it leaves. A* stallax has never been used much for this purpose, it comes to the chemist only in ’lb sealed original packages, enough for twentyfive or thirty shampoos. A teaspoonful of the fragrant stallax granules, dissolved in a cup cl hot water, is more than sufficient for each shampoo. It is very beneficial and stimulating to the Uaar, apart from it* beautifying effect. What Women Kate. Every woman hates a shiny nose and a dull or greasy complexion. Few know that there is an instantaneous remedy at hand in the home, one that is absolutely harmless, and that defies detection even under the closest scrutiny. If you have no cleminite in the lioua* get about an ounce, and add just sufficient water to dissolve it. A little of this lotion applied to the face will instantly cause the freasiness to disappear, and the skin will ave a perfectly natural, velvety, youthful bloom that any woman might envy. Tbe effect will last for many houis, and no powder is required, even under the most trying conditions, indoors or out. To prepare the face, neck, and arms for a long evening in a hot ballroom notiiing can come pare with this simple home-made lotion.

river broke through, flooding the flower beds, covering some with silt and washing gravel, etc., over the others. The former may be restored, the others are ruined beyond recovery. It is possible that some of the perennials, bulbs, etc., may survive, but at present it is a very desolate scene. Apart from the damage caused by the recent rains, the season has been very mild, and growth is still proceeding. Yesterday I visited a friend and she had had a bunch of narcissi in bloom for quite a while. At home in odd corners I find an odd bud on the bunches. Violets are coming on in their favourite corneis, and yesterday I saw the big fat buds of some of my hyacinths appear above ground. The soil here is none too congenial for violets and in this respect I have had a rather pleasant surprise. Last year I paid a visit to a friend, whose violet borders are in their season one purple mass. She showed me a bank of small purple violets that grew

a short distance away, remarking, meanwhile, that for years she had unsuccessfully attempted to transplant a root to her garden. I, remembering my poor show of violets, procured a root as a last forlorn hope, and now I have quite a large patch to show. It is in spring bulbs that I have the greatest success. This is partly accounted for in tiiat they are past before our busiest reason comes. However, tulips are not good doers here, til© bulbs seem to divide up and not come to maturity. All c-f my ranunculi have died out; wire worm, I am afraid. Last year some members paid a visit to a small gully on the side of Mount Fyffe, and brought back several young clematis. O' these, the greater number are growing apace. This particular gully i 3 a veritable nursery so they informed me. In the gladioli section I have one that I prize for the length of time it continued blooming. The first spike of bloom appeared in November, and at present there are three spikes in full bloom, and three or four with spikes of buds to flower later on. The colour is a salmon pink, and the flowers are medium size. Last year I picked the last spike in August, quite nine months of bloom. In winter the colour is a pale pink. The glory of my garden last year was the "Golden Ray Lily of Japan.” I think it the most perfect flower I have ever seen, and a- flower lover can easily understand how such a thing of beauty could be almost idolised. Unfortunately mine had a very short period of bloom —a raging nor’-wester tore the beautiful petals and ruined the bloom in one single morning. I find they are the greatest heart-breaks that one can have in the flowers. No amount of shelter seems to protect their fragile beauty from cold winds that sweep off the mountain. At present the chrysanthemum has pride of place, the great masses of bloom make such a show in the cold, dreary days. One of mine looks like brilliant sunshine; it has such a number of deep yellow blooms. In these I like the yellows, crimsons, and whites the best; the others are beautiful, but I always think that those colours seem “natural” to the chrysanthemum. In the same way I place white, cream, and deep crimson among the roses; it is only a fancy, perhaps an absurd one, but nevertheless one that I have. ELSIE. You have given a full and interesting account of your gardening experiences this year, Elsie. lam extremely sorry that you suffered in the flood. —ESTHER. * * * * ' * A SEASIDE GARDEN. Dear Esther, —I have no garden of my own this year, but have enjoyed the one belonging to the house where I am staying. It is not a large garden, a few chrysanthemums, a nice rose bush, a beautiful clump of toi toi grass, and masses of geraniums of all colours. A blaze of colour a few months ago, but not showing many flowers at present. It is wonderful how geraniums grow so well near the sea. There are some beauties here. A dark red with large petals giving such a cheery look to the place. It has grown into such a lovely bush. Then a little further on is a lovely salmon shade; the flowers aw like % r _elvet, and grow in such big clusters. Next is a tiny starry one, a lavender shade, so dainty, it. seems frightened to put itself in the way of the others. Then a pale pink and scarlet one turn and push their way through the netting fence and p-<p out here and there through a mass of pelargonium.

Tkere does not seem muich order about this garden, but the beauty is there. Isn’t it wonderful how the colours blend ? I did not realise before that geraniums could be so beautiful. There is beauty in every flower if we look for it, isn’t there? I seem to have had a full share of beauties of nature this past few months a 3 far as the sea-shore is concerned. Living so near the beach it has been delightful at low tide to walk along to the rocks. Sunny days or dull days the sea is fascinating. It has done a lot of damage combined with the flood waters lately, cut out sand banks and left bare rocks which we have not seen before. I love to watch the waves dashing against the rocks. One can spend hours watching the sea if they have the time to spare. Yesterday it was delightfully calm, and as the tide was going out there were some beautiful reflections round the rocks in the wet sand. Today it has been an exceptionally low tide, and the beach looked so inviting. I let myself forget there was such a thing as household duties, and took my little daughter out for a delightful half hour. It was refreshing ; you know how fresh everything is after

a good shower of rain, and fixe wet sand feels so firm to walk on. The rocks at low tide are always so beautiful. I don't know why, but they always tempt ine to go to them. There is always something mew there—little pools of water with just a mass of shells at the bottom, dainty pieces of seaweed and quaintly shaped pieces of sponge lying around. One could spend hours studying these tilings if they only had the time. I have wandered well away from the original subject, Esther, but someone may be interested. Best wishes for a good meeting. ANEMONE. Geraniums are delightful flowers, yielding their beauty so readily and bountifully. I am glad you have had such a pleasant autumn by the sea-side, Anemone.—ESTHEit. WEEDS. Dear Esther, —Weeds have been very aptly defined as plants springing where they are not wanted. To use the words “wild yrlant ’ is sometimes misleading, for a garden plant run riot can be as great a pest, as any, and quite as difficult to eradicate, as Octogenarian gave us some convincing examples of last session. if we want poppies and cornflowers in our garden we do not let oats and wheat shoulder them out of the flower toed; but if we sow oats and wheat in the fields and cornflowers and poppies come up also, to nod and smile among the corn, they straightway become the weeds to be exterminated. It is, after all, to a great extent a matter of situation. I remember a small gully of fern made beautiful year after year with the spotted bells of white and coloured foxgloves which suddenly appeared one summer, none knew from where. Another lovely specimen, standing solitary on a bush track at Riverton, was worth going a long way to see. Yet they are noxious weeds on the Government black-list, in no better case than the rest. Through the past year —with the very limited time at my disposal for gardening—l found that almost all my endeavours were bent upon the task of uprooting “plants springing where they are not wanted,” and it led me to the thought that the tact that they were jgeeda alone withheld from them their meed of praise for some beauty of their own, modest though it might be. One of our most pernicious intruders is the buttercup, finding a, hold for itself with alarming persistence, appearing and reappearing until its very leaves are anathema. Yet who can deny them the fairness of tlieir shining cups of gold? The same sense of sunlight is reflected in the flowers of the dandelion; which plant, given it 3 right species, is much prized in its true place for medicinal .purposes. In like manner comes the sowthistle, rich in healing properties, ever more widely appreciated, and the little-to-be-desired dock. Then comes the slender acid-flavoured sorrel, sought- by the French housewives as a welcome addition to their salads—its tinted shades of red, brown, and green give it a right to claim its own charm in the colour scheme, -while it holds its slight flower stalk as gracefully as that dainty little lady of the garden beds, “None-so-pretty.” We all know how unobtrusively the Canadian thistle entered our midst, and what it has became, a respecter of nothing, gardens included, and from childhood’s days we have been familiar with its aggressive Scottish cousin. Yet if legend be true the first Scotch thistle discovered in New Zealand was tended by a publican (of whose nationality there need be no question) as the most precious plant within his garden boundary, duckweed is a fresh wholesome grower, and as a weed I have a decided leaning to “Shepherd’s Purse”—it is so easily pulled out. Beyond the lawn every blade of grass is an interloper—the self-same grasses that outside the garden wall are rated at their true worth. A stretch of timothy in bloom is a thing of beauty quite apart from its money value, great though that may be; and a. bunch of clover, set about with its own green leaves, can hold up its head with a bouquet of “Ladies Pincushions” and not feel ashamed. The bees know its honey, and wise sheep the sweet feeding off those little round white heads. Perhaps among weeds also we can sav: “This is the Paradise of common things”—and find it. GABRIELLE. Your paper has a pleasant novelty among garden papers, Gabrielie. Foxgloves and buttercups are both special favourite flowers of mine.—ESTHER. (To be Continued.)